[VIDEO] As you may know already the longtime WWE Chairman and CEO has announced that he his retiring. Vince McMahon is a bit of a warhorse and as a man who is known for working out - at almost 77 he even wrestled at Wrestlemania earlier this year - I expected that he'd remain an important force for as long as his health would allow.
Then we got these scandals and stories kept coming out. Basically hush money to any former WWE employee or talent and also allegations of sexual harassment. Some people even say did he retire or did they just remove him from his important roles at a company he helped to build.
Sooner or later McMahon would move on even if it's the life cycle that helped that process forward. It's exciting to see what's next for WWE with Vince at the helm of that ship. Nick Khan and Stephanie McMahon will be co-CEOs and Triple H is back over talent relations.
Some people take issue with McMahon's ability to create new stars. He has standards that are very high such as he likes big burly men who look like superheroes. And some people criticize his creative abilities. At the same time he brought a former regional wrestling territory to worldwide recognition and who can sneeze at that. If WWE remained a regional territory I doubt that the ig account for Chicago's ABC affiliate would even blast this out on their page.
But then again speculation still remain. Vince likes working, perhaps he'll still be a force for WWE as long as he's still with us. Perhaps once this scandal subsides he might be back in the fold. Who knows, but in a post Vince WWE what will the future hold.
[VIDEO] I'll let Ollie of WrestleTalk discuss this further, more has come out with regards to McMahon's extramarital affairs and payouts of hush money to various women. I'd say this is going into the territory of this is too much.
Remember last month McMahon had left his roles as chairman and CEO of WWE for his daughter Stephanie McMahon to take over on an interim basis - she was already on a leave of absence. It was reported that the WWE Board of Directors has launched an investigation into some hush money paid to a former WWE paralegal.
You know it's great to get away from the craziness of the world of politics and the cultural war even if for a moment....
Just yesterday it was in the news that Vince McMahon the chairman and CEO of WWE was being investigated by his own company for a cash payout to a former employee whom he was having an affair. Recently his daughter and WWE COO - well it was announced fairly recently that she was taking a Leave of Absence from WWE - has assumed the position of chair & CEO until the conclusion of the investigation.
[VIDEO] WrestleMania 36 will be interesting considering the time during which it was produced. It feature two cinematic wrestling contests, many title changes, and it was too big for one night. See WrestleMania 36 would've taken place in a football stadium in Tampa Bay, Florida with roughly 70,000 in attendance. The problem was a worldwide pandemic artfully referred to by Stephanie McMahon as "current circumstances"
The video above by Wrestlelamia explains the imagery you see in one of the cinematic contests of WrestleMania weekend which is the Firefly Fun House match between John Cena and Bray Wyatt or The Fiend. From the comments I've seen online it was often panned but what I appreciate from the video above is the many explanations for what happened during that match. You might even see Titus O'Neil''s confused expression at the conclusion of that contest as he wasn't sure what he saw.
There seemingly was a lot in there and what should be conveyed in that "match" is that we're looking at Cena battling his past. Whether or not he was a wrestling fan who was watching the old Saturday's Night Main event and by extension the comparison with Hulk Hogan in the portion where they mimic the NWO and Hogan's heel turn in WCW. Then we look at key moments of Cena's career from his debut slapping the legendary Kurt Angle before a match and his eventual character development as the Doctor of Thuganomics. We see how Cena's career had developed.
I this video you see that Cena had heat with superstars. He held other performers back to certainly protect his position as a main event guy in WWE. And I suppose during this whole "match" we saw a point where Cena could've built a new star in Bray Wyatt and chose not to.
We also find out that Cena had a failed "rap career" and that in the beginning he was almost fired from WWE. If he had never became the Doctor of Thuganomics he would've never gotten close to the dance.
Regardless in this "match" The Fiend claimed yet another WWE legend. However, I have to add that one could say Cena was his own opponent. I don't know if you can call this a match, it seemed more like a dream sequence. It probably took place in the mind of Bray Wyatt and somehow Cena was caught up in it.
When Cena came out to his entrance music and then the scene transitioned to Bray's Firefly Fun House. I couldn't tell if any commentators were at the desk in the empty arena at the WWE Performance Center. So I find myself wonder if this "match" was nothing more than a dream sequence.
With this said, the Firefly Fun House match was a memorable moment from this past weekend's WrestleMania. It held my attention as much as the Boneyard Match between AJ Styles and the Undertaker. Both told very unusual stories and I have a hard time believing either match would be seen as it were in a live venue with so many fans. I think we'd get a typical WrestleMania match if this pandemic hadn't hit.
Also bear in mind finally that this WrestleMania was taped in advance, it wasn't live as it usually would be. I'm glad WWE went ahead and produced this PPV with the line from Ms. McMahon that the world needs entertainment more than ever. So many of us who have been sheltering in place may have found something on both nights that entertained them.
[VIDEO] I haven't done many posts about the coronavirus aka COVID-19 aka beerflu aka "Steve Corino" thanks WrestleTalk. Right now its the latest epidemic and I'm not stating this lightly. Here in Chicago our St. Patrick's Day parade downtown has been cancelled and in Illinois there are 19 reported cases in this state so far. Also CPS is affected by this beerflu as there are a few cases amongst CPS personnel.
According to Wrestlelamia this outbreak is affecting the current top two pro-wrestling promotions in the world WWE and AEW. AEW released a statement about the beerflu while there are some concerned that WWE might be forced to cancel the WrestleMania in Tampa Bay over this outbreak.
Just to add some context to this authorities concerned about this outbreak has to make decisions to really try to prevent the spread of this virus. There is some context with the flu epidemic of 100 years ago one public health official allowed a parade to take place while the other didn't and one city experienced more deaths from the flu than the other city. It's good that the organizers of Chicago St. Pat's parade have elected to cancel this parade with not a whole lot of prodding by the city or even the state. It's understood that the state of Illinois could step in if the city of Chicago wouldn't.
I've always wanted to go to WrestleMania though in light of this epidemic I'm glad I was a tad behind the curve on getting tickets. It would be a shame to cancel the "grandest stage of them all", however, those in the WWE universe certainly are in no rush to risk catching this virus. Perhaps by April 6, 2020 the beerflu will be nothing more than a memory.
[VIDEO] I missed this from last year. There was an episode of WWE Untold that explored the relauch of ECW as a brand with both RAW and SmackDown. It's akin to what's going on with NXT in the Wednesday nite wars against the emerging All Elite Wrestling.
ECW I only had three short years with the renegade promotion that was on the heels of both WCW and WWE (or WWF). The wrestling I saw was gritty and definitely didn't have the production values of both WCW or WWF. Somehow I admired that quality as the polished I expect from the other two companies.
What I do agree with as I continue to learn more about the impact of ECW is that they were the disruptors. If creatively WCW and WWF was in a rut, ECW was the guide out of it. And they had the fanbase to prove it as they were part of the episodes I saw on TV for those three short years. It will always be in my head how ECW fanatics would chant the three letters of their favorite promotions or pop huge for their favorite performers.
Another think that caught my attention with ECW is the violence. There was truly a form of anarchy in ECW although matches do end when a referee calls a submission or counts a pinfall. Beyond that the match could go all over the building and weapons could be used or even outside interference. The referees were said to wear costumes similar to the apparel of MMA referees. The action I saw as the WWF attitude era was in full swing was something different from the fare I would be treated to during the Monday nite wars.
Of course as happens, I came to the party late. When I discover ECW the ratings domination between WWF and WCW was beginning to turn. The NWO storyline was beginning to fizzle by 1999 and WWF as ascendant with the Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon storyline. And by 2001 WCW would become a WWF property and also ECW was bankrupt.
Then by 2005 ECW would become a WWE property and while fans yearned for its return it was revived. Of course now that it was part of the establishment it became the one thing wrestling fans in the 1990s rebelled against. And that is the story you see in the video above.
I can see where the revival fell short of the original. I can also see that ECW as a third brand that aired on the former Sci-Fi (no SyFy) allowed some future WWE superstars to gain some exposure and get TV time.
If the ECW revival hadn't gotten the attention of advertisers and networks prompting the involvement of Vince McMahon, fans can only wonder the direction of the ECW revival with the leadership of yet another McMahon, Shane McMahon. Oh man another thought just hit me.
What if WWE had been able to properly relaunch the aforementioned WCW as another brand? Ah well for both we'll never know!.
[VIDEO] I'm sorry to have missed this Tuesday. WWE superstar Matt Hardy's YouTube channel finally got their silver award from the largest most important video site in the world. Although currently the subscriber count is at 261K, you're eligible to receive the silver plaque you see Hardy holding once you arrive at 100K subscribers.
Also at 1 million subscribers you get a larger gold plaque and at 10 million you get a diamond play button. There are other awards for becoming a YouTube channel with a large subscriber base as PewDiePie at 103 million subscribers has arrived at, but I won't mention that. It has to essentially be a stratospheric rise.
Congrats Marr Hardy, I hope that you will either return to the ring (and not to put someone over) or otherwise you find another role in wrestling. Hopefully you will continue to put out content on your channel. I've watched some of it and was greatly entertained.
[VIDEO] I'm a few days late on this, but it should be noted that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's father - the legendary Rocky "Soul Man" Johnson passed away on Wednesday at 75.
Rocky Johnson who in a long ago match with the late Rowdy Roddy Piper was referred to as "Rock" by the legendary late Gorilla Monsoon was a bit ahead of my time. In that long ago match his footwork caught my attention and Johnsons background included being trained in boxing. That would definitely work if you're throwing "worked" punches so you have to do that theatrically anyway. [VIDEO]
The only way I knew of him was because of The Rock who when he started in the WWF was known as Rocky Maivia which is a merging of his father's name and his Samoan family name. Evidently for his son at one PPV during The Rock's initial run made the save for him using that amazing footwork. Indeed, if you want to see clips of this I recommend you check out Something Else to Wrestle With on the WWE Network. They look at the development of The Rock from his start in the USWA through his time in WWE (WWE=WWF got it).
Rocky Johnson helped to train The Rock for his wrestling career. Rocky Maivia was a third generation performer who's father was not only a legendary performer and soon to be WWE Hall of Famer, his Samoan family were in the business as well. In fact The Rock has several cousins in the business as well that includes The Usos and Roman Reigns. The Rock's contemporary Rikish Fatu was also a cousin.
Any I've talked very little of the father of the most electrifying man in sports entertainment. Like I said he was just a bit ahead of my time. I understand that he was one half of the first Black WWF world tag team champions with Tony Atlas. I also recognize that when he started in the business during the 1960s it was probably a very hard time to break into the business as a Black man. He's paid his dues and certainly paved the way for his very successful son who has even transcended wrestling into the world of movies.
I just had to share this a young Dwayne Johnson in the crowd watching his father perform [VIDEO]
I found this article from Block Club Chi tonite as I was watching Monday Nite Raw. While I didn't first see this report here, Walter is the reigning defending WWE UK champion and he was in town for a wrestling show EVOLVE 142. EVOLVE is a promotion that has a relationship with WWE and many who are on the NXT roster have at one point wrestled for EVOLVE.
Anyway according to the article there have been a rash of vehicle break-ins in Chicago's Logan Park area. This is where Walter had been part of Evolve's event at the Logan Square Auditorium. Another wrestler's items were also stolen but I'm sure what authorities are looking for is Walter's UK championship in addition to his passport.
I've jokingly even tweeted asking if anyone in Chicago has Walter's belt and passport.
Still I first heard about this from the YouTube channel Wrestlelamia on Sunday. It's among other stories and if you click video within the brackets it will take you directly to the story about Walter's missing title at about the 9 min. 55 sec. mark [VIDEO]
Here's a more direct story from the YouTube channel Heel By Nature published on Saturday [VIDEO]
Here's hoping they find the belt in time for next month's NXT UK Takeover Blackpool 2 when Walter as the reigning champion faces his challenger Joe Coffey.
[VIDEO] Something for you all to enjoy during this year's Survivor Series. A regular featured I've noticed from WWE's YouTube channel and probably their other social media accounts as well. It's cool to see those who aren't participating in this year's PPV come out and share their observations of what's going on at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois - not Chicago Michael Cole...
[VIDEO] Tonite is the nite from the former Rosemont Horizon aka Allstate Arena in suburban Chicago, Illinois is NXT TakeOver Wargames. Of course tomorrow nite is WWE Survivor Series where all three brands of the WWE - Raw, SmackDown, and NXT - will feature on the PPV Sunday.
What you will see here once its posted is the pre-show for the latest NXT TakeOver which will be no more than a half-hour. Then at 6 PM we see TakeOver Wargames where not only two teams of four women will compete we will also see the men compete in this brutal match as well.
For the men the Undisputed Era draped in all the championships in NXT will face off against Tommaso Ciampa, Keith Lee, Dominik Dijakovic, with another teammate to be determined during TakeOver. And the main event will be a triple threat between Pete Dunne (former NXT UK Champ) vs. Killian Dain vs. Damian Priest for #1 contender for the NXT championship where it will be defended the next nite at Survivor Series.
Also former Universal Champion Finn Balor will face off against Matt Riddle.
Can't wait. there appears to be one match during the pre-show which you will be able to watch above as well. That's according to the Wiki article.
Survivor Series is this weekend and I'm choosing this time to remind you of the Montreal screwjob from 22 years ago. That notable event happened at Survivor Series on November 9, 1997. Amazing how the time flew by since then.
Short story Bret "The Hitman" Hart held the WWF Championship going into this match and his challenger "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels had a brawl for a number of mintues before their title match. Michaels used Hart's finisher The Sharpshooter which is how Michaels wins the title. What makes this a screwjob is that Hart never tapped or submitted the referee Earl Hebner just made a haphazard attempt to see if Hart would submitted and then he rang the bell.
Wrestling is a work or scripted but this was a shoot doublecross. WWF owner Vince McMahon didn't want Bret Hart to be champion as he was about to go to WCW and McMahon figured out how to get the belt off Hart. Wrestling may be a work, but in that business the championship belts especially these main event titles such as the WWE Championship or the WWE Univerisal Championship really means something as the face of a company like WWE.
Errr WWF = WWE the initials changed by 2002 got it.
Anyway I will refer to my post from back in April of this year for you to get the story of the "shoot doublecross". It's amazing that there are some who might debate whether this was a work or a shoot. That this was all scripted!
[VIDEO] Wrestlelamia discusses the latest news on what happened in Saudi Arabia when WWE talent attempted to flight to the next town for another TV taping.
The situation after last week's Saudi Arabia PPV WWE Crown Jewel has gone from some form of international intrique involving another government to just more internal disarray within WWE. We hear that Vince McMahon left his talent in Saudi Arabia while they were held in a "hostage situation". We also heard about McMahon being owned money to his contract with the Saudi Arabian gov't for WWE events there and even him cutting off the feed of the PPV to Saudi viewers.
As far as that "hostage situation" we heard the delay was due to mechanical problems and some military police was involved. We heard a lot of superstars weren't happy with this situation. Whatever the story it was enough to keep those talent who were expected to be at FOX Friday Nite SmackDown in Buffalo to have missed the show. Which resulted in NXT talent being utilized for SmackDown instead which also helped make this the highest rated SmackDown since the move to the FOX network.
Who knows what the truth was and at least from what I can tell it was handled badly by WWE's PR with a release stating WWE talent weren't passionate enough to make it to SmackDown on Friday nite. I'm sure for most wrestling fans this is something that might be looked at for a while yet.
This news actually broke yesterday and is so monumental that Sport Illustrated wrote about it. I'm somewhat disappointed, but am I really. Did the man who led the former World Championship Wrestling to ratings dominance against WWE really desire to return to the business?
Based on his podcast 83 Weeks I don't know. It's great to hear his recollection of the so-called Monday Night Wars and of course the time he did start working for WWE in an on-screen role. But then Executive Director of Friday Night SmackDown seemed like a stretch even now. At the same time Bischoff has his own successes in the business.
I see that although there was some excitement with his hiring Sports Illustrated is over analyzing this as much as say a Dave Meltzer or anyone else in the pro-wrestling press. I see his role was only to watch and observe he didn't really have much creative input. It was speculated that he could help to transition the SmackDown brand to its new broadcast home on the FOX Network.
I hear in some reports that there was nothing good to say about Bischoff's time as the boss of SmackDown. Then I realize this is still the wrestling business, why am I thinking us wrestling fans are getting "worked"?
The first news of this I received from this YouTube channel Hannibal TV [VIDEO]
BTW, this is a humorous thing to come out of this unusual story. It shows that Bischoff knows how to bounce back assuming this isn't a work. I'd want to buy this shirt, everyone who has ever held a job could relate to this.
[VIDEO] The National Wrestling Alliance under the ownership of musican Billy Corgan streams their latest edition of their hour-long program Powerrr on YouTube. The program itself is out of Georgia Public Broadcasting in Atlanta, Georgia which began streaming at 5:05 PM (I'm using central time).
Atlanta had been the home of the former World Championship Wrestling which had formerly been associated with the NWA at least during the early 1990s. What this means is that the WCW world heavyweight title was actually the NWA world heavy weight title at least before WCW broke away from their association with the NWA.
The start time is a nice touch as on TBS programs usually start five minutes after the hour or half-hour as the case could be. I don't know what was up with that quirk on the former Superstation. It's a nice touch that Corgan's NWA is picked up.
Even if you don't get to watch this live I hope you enjoy. The first edition was pretty good!
[VIDEO] I don't yet know how I feel about this coming "call-up" as a staple of programming on the WWE Network will now have greater exposure on USA. I'm happy for the many talented NXT superstars to have a larger audience to show off their talents.
And the design with this is to better compete with an emerging rival promotion known as All Elite Wrestling. From what I have seen AEW is deep with talent from the indie scene of pro-wrestling. It will be exciting to see what AEW's talen will do against the largesse of the WWE which is the premiere promotion in the world of pro-wrestling....err sports entertainment.
NXT is WWE's developmental brand and has over the years signed talent from the indies. I get the idea that as many of these performers learn the WWE style what got them there is the craft they developed on the independent scene. What has always been true is you don't become a WWE superstar without experience elsewhere.
So all the same the NXT TV program will be live on USA and will be shown the same night as AEW's TV program which will air on TNT in October. This will be the closest to the Monday night wars as we will get for now. Perhaps NXT with some of their indie talent will compete with the indie talent of AEW. For this I'm very much looking forward to this move.
Let's just hope that Vince McMahon doesn't get too involved with the NXT brand and turn it into something longtime fans won't recognize. It doesn't need to become a new version of Raw or SmackDown or better yet the original third brand of WWE the former ECW....
Finally another note AEW has another PPV coming up this weekend called All In which will take place at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois (which is not exactly Chicago, but certainly surburban Chicago). On the same day NXT's UK brand will have their own TakeOver event in Cardiff, Wales. It's interesting to see two competing events although they won't be airing at the same time, I would be curious who gets the most eyes.
I'm guessing it won't be NXT UK TakeOver on the other hand it's curious that this was scheduled the same day as All In. It will be most interesting indeed.
[VIDEO] This clip starts off with talking about how WWE's Vince McMahon (he runs and owns the company if you want to know) handles people who sneezes around him and how McMahon himself sneezes. I've heard over the years he frowns on sneezing around him.
This clips ends after about 7 minutes talking about who might run WWE when McMahon either retires or passes. The answer from Prichard who currently works for WWE (and he's been a longtime employee ever though he's had years where he was a part from the company) has a more interesting answer. It's not as simple as Triple H will run it or Shane McMahon will run it. It's possible the WWE will remain in that family however as Triple H married into that family and Shane McMahon is his brother-in-law.
[VIDEO] I have always been a mark for the World Wrestling Federation - oh I mean WWE. I truly admire Vince McMahon who had led the former WWF to great heights since he purchased his dad's company in the early 1980s. He truly had an entrepreneurial approach to the business and brought it to the next level where wrestling is mainstream.
I saw a podcast McMahon did with one of his former top guys - one Stone Cold Steve Austin - and he tried to differentiate pro-wrestling from what he does. As he stated himself professional wrestling was what his dad Vincent J. McMahon had done back when it was the World Wide Wrestling Federation. Instead, Vince McMahon does sports entertainment and McMahon has over a 30 year record of success in that space even if he does have some periods of concern as we're seeing now.
I've been following wrestling news primarily through YouTube channels such as Wrestlelamia as you see above and WrestleTalk and they often talk about the declining ratings of WWE programming. Even now while I still tune in faithfully largely finding myself tuning out programming at home more focused on my PC or even the social network apps on my smartphone. There are some entertaining segments on the program and there are segments I could be very happy without.
BTW, since I never really talked about it the Saudi Arabian PPV SuperShow Down it seems for most fans was a disappointment. There were a few good matches from the show, however, I chose to skip the Goldberg v. Undertaker match which has many fans saying that it's time for both of those legends to hang it up. Even I bought into the hype of the Undertaker hanging it up. Yet I wouldn't mind seeing Goldberg one more time however many fans just are ready for both to enjoy their retirements and no more big money for just one more match. Also remember WWE does have an agreement with Saudi Arabia for other shows for a good period of time and the Saudi family who rules that kingdom has money to burn (and reportedly for one more match from the late Ultimate Warrior).
So anyway some people see this year's SuperShow Down as symptomatic of what's wrong with WWE programming this year. Perhaps the decline occurred as soon as the McMahon family eliminated general managers from their two marquee brands. Who knows, but perhaps things are a bit stale and as WWE had some over the years its time to revamp the programming. I'd be excited for some reinvigorating entertainment from the largest pro-wrestling/sports entertainment company in the world!
On Sunday after the WWE Performance Center Combine broadcast on the WWE Network, I watched a 20 minute documentary featuring Eric Bischoff, Booker T, Shane Helms, Jeremy Borash, and Brian Bedol talking about a potential relaunch of World Championship Wrestling. The basic point of the documentary is about Bischoff who had been WCW President was trying to purchase the company from Turner Broadcasting with Bedol who was part of this company called Fusient Media Ventures. If it had worked, it would've meant that WCW wouldn't have been bought by the World Wrestling Federation as had actually happened by March 2001 just before WrestleMania that year.
By 2001, I likely has stopped watching WCW as it was increasingly trying to outdo the creative of WWF at the time. As Bischoff admitted in this documentary behind the scenes the situation was a messs and he wanted to buy WCW from Turner Broadcasting who at that point had been bought about AOL Time Warner. With Bischoff as head of a new WCW purchased from Turner he would've attempted to pull off a relaunch of WCW with a PPV known as The Big Bang.
With this said, I likely found out about the potential deal on a website known as 1Wrestling.com which in the days before social media - and I currently get most of my wrestling news from YouTube and this was four years before that site's creation - was how I got most of my wrestling news. Unfortunately there are no archives from before 2006, however, I'm sure there were items about Fusient and an apparent deal made between Fusient & Turner. I'm also sure there were items about the deal being undone by Turner's cancellation of WCW on TNT and TBS which effectively killed that deal. Thus the door was opened for the WWF err sorry WWE to purchase the company that briefly won the Monday night wars.
Little did I know in 2001 that the pro-wrestling or sport entertainment universe was changing. As WCW was going through their dying days, Extreme Championship Wrestling was going bankrupt. In 2000, ECW had their own primetime Saturday night program The Nashville Network until WWF moved to that network to become The National Network (eventually Spike TV or The Paramount Network much later). ECW soldiered on with their syndicated programming until they ran out of money to produce more programming.
So before WWF eventually bought WCW the big three top wrestling promotions of the nation was cut down to two and then eventually WWF errr WWE reigned supreme. And as happens while there have been other companies who tried to compete with WWE it's been said that wrestling is bigger than ever today. While WWE is experiencing some ratings decline recently that company has largely reigned supreme since 2001.
The latest company to emerge to challenge WWE is All Elite Wrestling which had their recently PPV on Saturday with Double or Nothing (and another called All Out at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois) time will tell if AEW can compete. What can be said for them now is that in the fall they will have a weekly program on the former network home of WCW Monday Nitro on TNT. And they put on a good show with the recent Double or Nothing. As stated the future of wrestling seems to be bigger than ever now!
[VIDEO] Before Jim Ross began a new podcast with Conrad Thompson - who also among other wrestling themed podcasts has one with longtime pro-wrestling producer Bruce Prichard called Something to Wrestle - I was treated to a few editions of The Ross Report. It helped me realize the extent of Jim Ross' experiences in pro wrestling and not just as a play-by-play man, also realize that for many years in the WWF he was an executive in charge of talent relations helping to find the newest stars for the business. Ross had been a busy man for sure.
Of course, Ross has left WWE last month to remain in the game as while he was under contract and paid by WWE he was largely underutilized. He also noted in the above video his relationship with his wife Jan who sadly passed away over two years ago. It sounds as if he was dating her while he was working for Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling. He discusses his time with them and how he found himself later working with the World Wrestling Federation err WWE.
It's fascinating to hear his observations of how WCW operated under the management of the Tuner corporate structure. He saw that there was in his words a cancer that proved to be terminal and the result was WCW's sale to Vince McMahon's WWE in 2001. The issues were ongoing were WCW couldn't survive the Turner company's acquisition by Time Warner.
However the irony or ironies is that as All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is currently negotiating at TV deal wrestling could return to either or both Turner channels TBS & TNT which were the channels where WCW programming had formerly been broadcast. And an even more interesting irony is that Ross who had been the voice of WCW when I first started watching wrestling will be likely by the voice of AEW once their weekly TV begins to air later this year.
